1. Peer Education as a Tool to Teach Students about Science
Dr Vicki Young
e-Bug Project Manager, Public Health England

2. Overview for Next Hour What is Peer Education What is e-Bug?
How e-Bug uses Peer Education
Secondary School Science Shows
Young Adult Antibiotic lessons
How you can use Peer Education in your schools

3. What is Peer Education?
Peer education involves the teaching of others by their peers.
Peer education is becoming an increasingly popular educational tool, both in schools and the community, due to the benefits for all involved.
'Peer education is an approach which empowers young people to work with other young people, and which draws on the positive strength of the peer group. By means of appropriate training and support, the young people become active players in the educational process rather than passive recipients of a set message. Central to this work is the collaboration between young people and adults.'
Fast Forward, national voluntary organisation promoting health and wellbeing.
The basis of peer education is that the teacher and student are equals, with similar backgrounds, as opposed to the traditional teacher/student relationship.

4. Why use Peer Education? Benefits to peer educators:
confidence, communication skills, social skills, deeper understanding of topics covered, increased knowledge in the area
Benefits to students taught by peers:
students can identify with their educator, which allows the development of positive relationships and a greater level of trust between teacher and student, enhanced learning

5. What is e-Bug?

6. What is e-Bug?
A free microbiology, hygiene and health education resource for junior (7-11yrs) and senior (12-15yrs) school students, and young adults (15-18yrs)
Established in 2006 by the Health Protection Agency, e-Bug is now funded and operated by Public Health England
e-Bug aims to teach young people important health messages around the spread, treatment, and prevention of infection

7. Public Health England (PHE)
An executive agency of the Department of Health
Formed in April 2013 by bringing together over 70 organisations
PHE has 7 key priorities

8. PHE’s 7 Priorities Tackling obesity, particularly amongst children
Reducing smoking, stopping children starting
Reducing harmful drinking and alcohol related hospital admissions
Ensuring every child has the best start in life
Preventing Dementia and reducing prevalence in year olds
Reducing rates of TB
Tackling the growth of antimicrobial resistance
Here are PHE’s 7 priorities. As you can see, many of our priorities relate to children and young people, and trying our best to help them to grow into healthy adults. Where the e-Bug team comes in is the last priority, tackling the growth of Antimicrobial resistance

9. Antimicrobial Resistance
“Antimicrobial resistance is a ticking time-bomb not only for the UK but also for the world. We need to work with everyone to ensure the apocalyptic scenario of widespread antimicrobial resistance does not become a reality.”
- Professor Dame Sally Davies

10. But equally important:
We need to teach children about prudent antibiotic use as they are our future generation of antibiotic users
But equally important:
Within schools, infections are a major cause of absenteeism
Half of children consulting their GP have an infection
Antibiotics are the most common childhood medicines
Well, it is necessary to teach children and young people about prudent antibiotic use as they are the future generation of users of antibiotics. However, it is also equally important to consider that in schools, infections and illness are a key contributor to student absenteeism. Also, half of children and young people consulting their GP have some type of infection, and antibiotics are the most commonly prescribed childhood medication. So if we’re able to reduce the number of infections in children, we’ll in turn reduce the amount of antibiotics being used by children.
If we reduce childhood infections, we reduce antibiotic use

11. The e-Bug Resources 4-7 yrs 7-11 yrs 11-15 yrs 15-18 yrs
Online Science Show
7-11 yrs
Junior school teacher pack
Student website
11-15 yrs
Senior school teacher pack
15-18 yrs
Young adult teacher pack
Peer education resources
Launched in 2011
Launched in 2009
Launched in 2014/15

12. The Classroom Resource
The teacher packs contains detailed lesson plans, activities, worksheets and extension activities on 11 different topics to engage children in interactive classroom learning.

13. 7-11 years (KS2) and 11-15 years (KS3)
The Pack Contents
7-11 years (KS2) and years (KS3)
Micro-organisms
An Introduction
Useful Microbes
Harmful Microbes
Spread of Infection
Hand Hygiene
Respiratory Hygiene
Food Hygiene
Farm Hygiene
Sexual Transmission
Chlamydia
Prevention of Infection
The Body’s Natural Defences
Vaccinations
Oral Hygiene
Treatment of Infection
Antibiotic Use and Medicine
Microbes
Antibiotics
4-7 Years (KS1)
15-18 Years (KS4/5)

14. The e-Bug Website
This is the landing page of the e-Bug website. From here, teachers and other educators can enter the teacher specific site.

15. Teacher Website
The e-Bug teacher website houses all the e-Bug resources in downloadable form including lesson plans, activity demonstrations and PowerPoint
presentations.
Here is the e-Bug teacher website. All of the e-Bug resources are available for free to download from the website. We have detailed lesson plans on the 10 different topics mentioned for classroom based learning, in addition to many other resources that are not included in the pack, such as videos and other multimedia. The news section continues to be updated for teachers and detailed curriculum links are also available.

16. The e-Bug Website
On the home page of e-Bug, students can enter their appropriate site, so either the junior or the senior site.

17. Student Websites
The student websites contains lots activities, enabling students to carry on their learning at home.
Junior and Senior:
Disease Fact Files
Revision Guides
Quiz
Games
Downloads
Hall of Fame
Home Science

18. Student Websites
The student websites contains lots activities, enabling students to carry on their learning at home.
Young Adult:
Hot Topics
Coursework and Revision
Infection Advice
Videos
Patient Stories
Animations
Links

19. Science Show website

20. Science Show website Science Show Videos Posters Fact sheets
Activities for KS1

21. EU and Beyond
The e-Bug resources are currently being translated into all EU languages, Arabic and Mandarin, with 21 language websites live.
The e-Bug team works with partners in 24 countries.
September 2014 to August 2015:
151,239 worldwide visits!
As I mentioned previously, e-Bug is an international project. The e-Bug resources are currently being translated into all the EU languages, Turkish and Arabic. At the moment, there are 19 language websites live for students and educators to access.
We work with partners in 24 countries to spread key health messages across the world. And in this academic year between September and April, the e-Bug website had over worldwide visits.
*Saudi Arabia
not shown

22. How e-Bug uses Peer Education
Secondary School Science Shows
Young Adult Antibiotic lessons

23. How e-Bug uses Peer Education
Secondary School Science Shows
Young Adult Antibiotic lessons

24. Secondary School Science Shows
Aim: to develop, deliver and evaluate a peer education workshop for school aged children on hygiene and the prevention of infection
The project will:
Provide health education for young people
Allow peer educators to develop a wide range of skills
Promote the e-Bug resources to schools across the UK
Promote the role of the environmental health department to the next generation

25. Secondary School Science Shows
Overall objective:
provide young people with the knowledge and confidence to look after their own health
Based on the e-bug road show
Collaboration with FoD
Carried out a pilot to test the idea before we went ahead with full evaluation

26. Why work in partnership?
e-Bug and Environmental Health Departments share a common aim:
to educate the public (adults and children) about hygiene and the spread of infection
Common issues include:
Person to person spread of infection through inadequate hand washing, coughing and sneezing
Educating children about food safety
Educating children about good hygiene practice when visiting farms
Can also work more effectively – share resources

27. Why work in partnership?
Collaboration allows both
teams to:
Raise their profile
Build relationships
Share resources
The Forest of Dean Environmental Health department was awarded the Royal Society for Public Health, Health and Wellbeing award 2013 for its work with e-Bug

28. How does the project work?
Fulfil logbook
Fulfil mandate
Fulfil mandate
Environmental Health Departments
Environmental Health Officers and students
Improve student recruitment
Learning for students
Peers
Peer Educators
Senior schools
Develop a range of skills
Parents
Learning for students
Junior schools
Feeder Primary school students
Parents
Learning from their peers

29. Outline of the pilot workshops
4 schools across Gloucestershire and Bristol took part in the pilot
Day 1
The e-Bug science road show was delivered to Year 8 students
20-25 students were selected as peer educators
The peer educators were trained on how to deliver the road show
Day 2
A pilot event took place in the Forest of Dean in early 2013.
The peer educators delivered the e-Bug science road show to Year 7 and local junior school students
How were the workshops evaluated?
Students involved in the workshop completed before, after and knowledge retention questionnaires. Peer educators and teachers were also interviewed after the event.

30. Science Road Show
Developed in collaboration with BSAC, the show has travelled throughout the UK, from Glasgow to Brighton, spreading the word about microbes, hygiene and antimicrobial resistance to families using fun interactive activities.
In collaboration with the British Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, e-bug developed a travelling science road show. We have travelled throughout the UK to deliver the show in schools and at science festivals. There are 5 stands, each with an interactive activity. Vicki and I will be demonstrating some of these activities later.

31. Science Show Stands

32. The e-Bug activities Microbe Mania Horrid Hands
An introduction to microbes – the children learn through creating their own microbe out of play dough, using microbe images to think about shapes and sizes.
Learning outcomes:
There are three different types of microbe - bacteria, viruses and fungi
Microbes are all different shapes and sizes
Some are useful but some can be harmful
Microbes are found everywhere
Horrid Hands
The children learn how microbes spread through touch by visualising the spread of UV gel after shaking hands. An activity with soap, water and pepper also demonstrates why using soap is important.
Learning outcomes:
We pick up microbes from the things we touch and can spread these to other people
Washing hands is one of the best ways to prevent the spread of microbes
Washing hands with soap and water is better than washing hands with water alone

33. The e-Bug activities How clean is Your Kitchen? Antibiotic Awareness
The children are asked to make a chicken sandwich and UV powder is used to show the spread of microbes during the cooking process.
Learning outcomes:
There can be harmful microbes on raw food, especially raw meat
The best way to destroy harmful microbes on meat is to cook thoroughly
Always wash your hands after touching raw meat
Antibiotic Awareness
A colour change experiment in a test tube demonstrates antibiotics killing bacteria and why it is important to finish the course of antibiotics.
Learning outcomes:
Antibiotics are special medicines that only work on bacteria
You should only take antibiotics prescribed by your doctor, and you should always take the whole course of antibiotics
Never take anyone else’s antibiotics
Antibiotics do not work on viral infections like most coughs, colds and flu
Bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics

34. The e-Bug activities Giant Sneezes
The children use a spray gun with green food colouring to demonstrate how far a sneeze can travel.
Learning outcomes:
There can be harmful microbes in your sneezes
Microbes can travel through the air
Microbes can spread to other people through your sneezes
Sneezes can spread germs a long way
If you sneeze into your hand you should always wash your hand afterwards
Sneezing into a tissue is the best way to stop the spread of colds and flu germs

35. Evaluation of the workshops
The event was received well by both students and teachers:
“It’s quite a good learning experience, because you build up your confidence to like speak and, like in front of an audience.”
Peer Educator, Year 8
“… I think that it’s more of a fun way of learning if you get someone like, from like your age, you can get across learning in your like, your way kind of thing...”
Peer Educator, Year 8
“The reciprocal learning, from the team of Year 8 students, was really special. This made the event really stick in everyone’s minds. The ‘waves will go out across the pond’, so to speak, about this and such real life learning will not be forgotten. This was truly life changing….”
Headteacher.

36. Evaluation of the workshops
Schools participated for three main reasons:
To develop links with local primary schools
Development opportunities for their students
To raise awareness of health and hygiene topics
Teachers noted how quiet and shy students grew in confidence throughout the day. Peer educators have been described as ‘more responsive to learning’ since the event.

37. Knowledge change
The knowledge change questionnaires showed that there was a significant improvement in knowledge for all topics covered.
The Antibiotics topic had the lowest pre-workshop knowledge of all topics covered
Hand hygiene had the highest pre-workshop knowledge
‘Antibiotics kill viruses’ – only 5.9% of students answered this correctly in the pre-knowledge questionnaire. There was 32.4% improvement .

38. Knowledge change
The greatest knowledge change occurred in the Giant Sneezes topic (for junior students) and the Microbe Mania topic (for senior students)
Peer educators generally had a higher knowledge change after the workshop, and also a higher knowledge retention 6 weeks after the event

39. The future of the project
We have used the evaluation results to develop a peer education package that will be sent out to all Environmental Health departments across the country
We are seeking endorsement from the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health
The aim is for each region to undertake the workshops at a local level
Keep an eye out for the workshops in your region!!

40. How e-Bug uses Peer Education
Secondary School Science Shows
Young Adult Antibiotic lessons

41. How e-Bug uses Peer Education
Secondary School Science Shows
Young Adult Antibiotic lessons

42. Young Adult Peer Education resources
e-Bug has resources for year olds on antibiotics. These include a peer education lesson:
Older students can undertake the activities with younger students
Or students of the same age could run the activities for their peers
The lesson plan details how teachers can run these activities in their schools.
Find these resources on under ‘Young Adults’!

43. Young Adult Peer Education resources
Information for Teachers
Exam links/Learning outcomes
Background Information for Peer Educators
Introducing Antibiotics

44. Young Adult Peer Education resources
Introducing Antibiotics

45. Young Adult Peer Education resources
Information for Teachers
Exam links/Learning outcomes
Background Information for Peer Educators
Introducing Antibiotics
Antibiotic Resistance

46. Young Adult Peer Education resources
Antibiotic Resistance
Antibiotic resistant bacteria
Bacteria
Antibiotic
Antibiotic resistance can spread to other bacteria
Antibiotic resistance is passed on when bacteria reproduce

47. Young Adult Peer Education resources
Information for Teachers
Exam links/Learning outcomes
Background Information for Peer Educators
Introducing Antibiotics
Antibiotic Resistance
Taking Antibiotics Correctly

48. Young Adult Peer Education resources
Taking Antibiotics Correctly

49. Young Adult Peer Education resources
Information for Teachers
Exam links/Learning outcomes
Background Information for Peer Educators
Introducing Antibiotics
Antibiotic Resistance
Taking Antibiotics Correctly
Optional: Extension/Homework
Advance Preparation

50. How you can use Peer Education in your schools
Secondary School Science shows can be adapted to suit different requirements:
As part of a school science week or festival
As an external event the school is hosting
As part of an open day or induction day for Year 6 students
The activities could be divided up to fit into shorter lessons or assemblies

51. How you can use Peer Education in your schools
Try out the Young Adult Peer Education Lesson!
Use e-Bug resources
Use Peer Education Materials
Take the Antibiotic Guardian Pledge for Educators

52. Acknowledgements Primary Care Unit, Public Health England:
Charlotte Eley
Dr Donna Lecky
Dr Cliodna McNulty
The Forest of Dean Environmental Health Department:
Dennis Fettis
Beth Pritchard